????據(jù)有關(guān)媒體上周報(bào)道，美國(guó)證券交易委員會(huì)（SEC）正對(duì)IBM的云計(jì)算營(yíng)收進(jìn)行調(diào)查,。消息一經(jīng)披露,，大家議論紛紛?？偛课挥诩~約的科技巨頭IBM承認(rèn),，早在今年5月，公司就已經(jīng)開(kāi)始配合美國(guó)證交會(huì)進(jìn)行相關(guān)的調(diào)查,，但I(xiàn)BM拒絕透露進(jìn)一步細(xì)節(jié),。不過(guò)，有一點(diǎn)很明確：軟件即服務(wù)這類(lèi)產(chǎn)品的會(huì)計(jì)計(jì)算方法歷來(lái)存在爭(zhēng)議,，因此,，此次調(diào)查絕不是最后一次。

????云計(jì)算本身沒(méi)有問(wèn)題——問(wèn)題出在其包裝和銷(xiāo)售方式,。與傳統(tǒng)內(nèi)部部署軟件不同,，基于云計(jì)算的工具一般通過(guò)長(zhǎng)期合同進(jìn)行支付?？蛻?hù)可以每月支付費(fèi)用,，意味著公司的收益也是長(zhǎng)期性的，結(jié)果導(dǎo)致會(huì)計(jì)計(jì)算非常麻煩,，因?yàn)檎麄€(gè)收益期會(huì)橫跨多年（而且有些客戶(hù)還可能中途終止合同）,。對(duì)于大公司，情況將變得更加復(fù)雜,，因?yàn)樗鼈兺ǔ０言朴?jì)算和非云計(jì)算產(chǎn)品捆綁銷(xiāo)售。

????祖?？萍迹╖uora）首席執(zhí)行官左軒霆說(shuō)：“會(huì)計(jì)準(zhǔn)則是在我們進(jìn)行傳統(tǒng)商品交易時(shí)誕生的,。當(dāng)我們從制造業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)向服務(wù)業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)型時(shí)，情況變得十分復(fù)雜,?！弊骖,？萍际且患矣?jì)費(fèi)平臺(tái)軟件開(kāi)發(fā)商，產(chǎn)品被多家云計(jì)算公司使用,。

????IBM可謂云計(jì)算轉(zhuǎn)型的典型,。過(guò)去幾年，這家公司一直在努力從硬件和內(nèi)部部署軟件提供商轉(zhuǎn)型成云計(jì)算和服務(wù)供應(yīng)商,。為了擴(kuò)張?jiān)朴?jì)算實(shí)力,，IBM進(jìn)行了多項(xiàng)收購(gòu)，其中包括最近以20億美元收購(gòu)“公有云”租賃公司SoftLayer Technologies,。

????市場(chǎng)調(diào)研公司Cowen & Co分析師皮特?戈德馬徹說(shuō)：“任何時(shí)候把兩家公司放在一起,，自然會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)它們的會(huì)計(jì)計(jì)算方法有些許不同。因?yàn)閮杉夜镜慕?jīng)營(yíng)策略不同,，營(yíng)收模式也不一樣,。而把不同的分銷(xiāo)模式和會(huì)計(jì)計(jì)算方法整合到一起時(shí)，情形會(huì)更加撲朔迷離,?！?/p>

????不過(guò)，這并不是IBM,、甲骨文（Oracle）,、SAP等在云計(jì)算領(lǐng)域大肆并購(gòu)的公司所面臨的唯一問(wèn)題。銷(xiāo)售傭金的計(jì)算也變得非常復(fù)雜,。傳統(tǒng)軟件銷(xiāo)售人員通過(guò)銷(xiāo)售一次性軟件而獲得數(shù)量不菲的傭金,。隨著所謂傳統(tǒng)公司向更先進(jìn)、更有增長(zhǎng)潛力的云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)演進(jìn),，究竟如何計(jì)算這些產(chǎn)品的銷(xiāo)售額目前來(lái)看仍是云里霧里,。因?yàn)樵朴?jì)算產(chǎn)品通常會(huì)和非云計(jì)算產(chǎn)品捆綁銷(xiāo)售。例如,，IBM此前宣布,，與云計(jì)算相關(guān)的業(yè)務(wù)在2013年上半年同比增長(zhǎng)了70%。但它并未提供任何銷(xiāo)售數(shù)據(jù),，因?yàn)镮BM自己也不知道之前和當(dāng)下的云計(jì)算營(yíng)收到底有多少,。

????投資者可能需要一段時(shí)間才能了解這些大型科技公司到底從云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)中賺到了多少以及它們所進(jìn)行的云計(jì)算并購(gòu)的整合情況。即便是云計(jì)算巨頭亞馬遜（Amazon）目前也未被要求細(xì)化披露云計(jì)算產(chǎn)品“亞馬遜網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)”的營(yíng)收情況,。Cowen & Co的戈德馬徹稱(chēng),，投資者應(yīng)冷靜看待這些基于訂閱的營(yíng)收，無(wú)論其長(zhǎng)期收益流看起來(lái)多具吸引力,?！啊覀儞?dān)心，投資者被這種模式迷惑了,。因?yàn)闊o(wú)論損益表還是資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表,，都是反應(yīng)真實(shí)業(yè)務(wù)狀況的滯后指標(biāo),。”戈德馬徹在最近的報(bào)告中寫(xiě)道,。但他也在隨后注明,，即便美國(guó)證交會(huì)有理由展開(kāi)調(diào)查，但云計(jì)算不大可能存在非法交易,。戈德馬徹說(shuō)：“我的看法是,，情況確實(shí)相當(dāng)復(fù)雜。而情況越復(fù)雜,，人們就越容易出錯(cuò),。”

????換句話(huà)說(shuō),，除非云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展得足夠龐大,，以至于需要增加透明度，同時(shí)各類(lèi)大小企業(yè)對(duì)“基于訂閱的產(chǎn)品”的會(huì)計(jì)計(jì)算更加標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化,，否則,，未來(lái)有關(guān)云計(jì)算的這類(lèi)錯(cuò)誤（以及美國(guó)證交會(huì)的調(diào)查）很可能將層出不窮。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：項(xiàng)航??

????Last week's disclosure that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation into how IBM reports its cloud computing revenue poses more questions than answers. The New York-based tech giant admitted it has been cooperating with the SEC since last May but said little else about the particulars of the case. One thing is clear: It's likely this won't be the last probe into the often inconsistent methods used to account for software-as-a-service products.

????The cloud itself isn't the problem -- it's the way it happens to be packaged and sold. Unlike traditional, on-premise software, cloud-based tools are usually paid for via multi-year contracts. Customers are charged a monthly subscription fee, which means a recurring revenue stream that can be tricky to account for because it spans the course of several years (and because, sometimes, customers back out of contracts). This gets especially complicated at large companies that lump cloud-computing sales in with non-cloud products.

????"Accounting rules were written when we were all trading goods with each other," says Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, a billing platform used by many cloud computing companies. "As we move away from a manufacturing economy to a service economy it gets pretty complex."

????IBM (IBM) may be a good example of this phenomenon. Over the past few years, the company has been shifting from its roots as a hardware and on-premise software vendor, toward a future as a cloud and services purveyor. To that end, it's made several acquisitions, including a recent $2 billion bid to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, which rents out computing power to customers.

????"Any time you put two companies together, it's reasonable to expect that they will have slightly different accounting practices," says Cowen & Co. analyst Peter Goldmacher. "These are different companies with different policies and different revenue models. You've got an involved situation made complicated by taking different delivery models and accounting practices and putting them together."

????That's not the only problem for companies like IBM -- and Oracle (ORCL) and SAP (SAP) -- that have made acquisitions in the cloud computing space. This clash of cultures also complicates commissions, because salespeople used to selling traditional software are used to collecting a hefty, one-time check for every deal they close. And while embracing these new, high-growth technologies are a necessary evolution for so-called legacy companies, it's not clear just how much money they're actually making from the cloud because these fledgling businesses are often bundled with other, non-cloud products. IBM, for example, has said its cloud computing business was up 70% during the first half of this year. But it hasn't given any frame of reference because it doesn't actually break out what those revenues used to be or are currently.

????It will likely be a while before investors can tell exactly what these large tech companies are making from these new businesses and how well they're folding in their cloud-based acquisitions. Even cloud heavyweight Amazon.com (AMZN) isn't yet required to break out revenue from its growing cloud computing products, Amazon Web Services. According to Cowen & Co.'s Goldmacher, investors should pause before becoming too enamored with subscription-based revenue, however attractive a recurring revenue stream may seem: "... we are concerned that investors are taking false comfort in these models because the income statement and balance sheet can be lagging indicators on the real trajectory of the business," he wrote in a recent report. But Goldmacher is also quick to note that it's unlikely anything nefarious is going on, even if the SEC has reason to launch an investigation. "My belief is that this is just really complicated," says Goldmacher. "The more complicated an undertaking the more likely you are to make a mistake."

????In other words, until these new cloud-computing businesses get large enough to require more transparency -- and until accounting practices for subscription-based products become more standardized at all tech companies, large and small- -- it's likely there are plenty more mistakes (and SEC investigations) ahead.